The Village of Monticello’s code enforcement officer, James Snowden, talks Wednesday about alleged violations at his house in the Town of Thompson. He said the spats were over taxes.

Code officer: Tickets issued over tax spat

By Victor Whitman

Times Herald-Record

July 18, 2013 - 2:00 AM

MONTICELLO — Village Code Enforcement Officer James Snowden denied on Wednesday that he was illegally occupying his home on Hiram Jones Road and claimed that spats with the Town of Thompson over taxes led town officials to ticket him for code violations out of spite.

"Let me ask you — have you ever seen a cop give another one a ticket?" Snowden said while sitting in his office in Village Hall. "To me it is a slap in the face — a lack of respect."

Snowden was ticketed by the Thompson code enforcement officer in June for violations of the same kind of codes that he's charged with enforcing within village limits. He said the negative publicity has dealt his credibility a blow, even though he "will be vindicated in the end."

"I am out there issuing tickets, making sure the village is safe," Snowden said. "It affects my ability when I am saying, 'you must cut your grass.' It puts me in a little bit of a spot."

Snowden and his brother, John, are accused of living in their houses without a certificate of occupancy and of parking four unregistered vehicles in violation of the town's junkyard regulations. Snowden said he and his brother lived continuously in the houses without issues for more than two years when he was suddenly served at Village Hall with the tickets a month after he challenged his tax assessment

"It wasn't an issue until I filed the second tax grievance," he said.

Snowden and his brother built two houses at 117-119 Hiram Jones Road on jointly owned property. Snowden said former inspector TJ Brawley gave a CO to him on June 28, 2010; however, the document was not dated. He brought it back to Brawley to get a tax credit. Brawley sent Snowden a new document, a temporary CO, which expired in December 2010.

Town prosecutor Paula Kay said the town has no record of the first document. "He refused to produce it for the judge and so it is up to the judge how his failure to comply with a judicial order will be handled," Kay said. "Our building department gave them numerous opportunities to clear the violations and only filed "» notice (to appear in court) as a last resort."

Snowden appeared July 10 before Justice Perry Meltzer and scheduled to return to court on Aug. 21. The violations carry fines and possible jail time. Snowden said he'll send Meltzer a written request this week asking him to recuse himself, claiming that Meltzer as a private attorney has an ongoing conflict with him over a project in the village.